Archive for March 2009

It has been brought to the attention of fightflashfraud that a UK seller (not, it seems, a deliberate fraudster) has recently sold faulty USB flash drives on ebay. The ones the seller had used were fine so the seller thought (when a buyer complained that the two tested with h2testw failed) that the buyer was up to something – an understandable suspicion!

We can assure the seller the buyer is completely honest and is not doing anything other than trying to protect people from losing valuable files! She has reported to us that 5 out of the 10 flash drives she bought from the seller in question were faulty. This doesn’t really affect her (other than the fact that she wasted her money) but it could affect anyone who saves files to a faulty item from this seller – they could lose their files! She is hoping to make the seller understand the issue rather than drag him through the mire.

Corsair now joins Sony, Kingston and Transcend to have their brand name usb flash drives counterfeited and sold on eBay. The joys of fake flash selling, the profits are so good and for brand names commanding high prices the profit is addicting. The misery of fake flash buyers, the woes of data loss and trying to get money back.

SOSFakeFlash has now two ebay sellers reported and of course confirmed. Sellers or want to be sellers on eBay. Pay Attention! Make sure you test your merchandise properly. The program H2testw 1.4 doesn’t cost you a penny and links to it are found out the FrankenFlash Project sites. It will save you a lot of coming misery if you purchased cheat merchandise. The wholesale prices for usb flash drives are not Cheap and never have been. Visit the http://flashdrivefacts.wordpress.com/ to learn more about prices. That new site is devoted it educating sellers and buyers.

The most disturbing things is that both Corsair and Kingston have had their lastest flash drives faked. This hurts! It costs a lot of money to develop new technology and having it ripped off and counterfeited with cheap imitations causing data loss and a very negative experience in the consumers mind is damaging. As usual, don’t expect eBay to wiggle a finger to stop it. They will only do the bare minimum and have always chosen the easily road – closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. It’s some time hard to see the difference. eBay appears as addicted to profit as the fake flash sellers. Mean while, brand names can suffer and the buyers too.

We understand the problems of the current economic situation. But if you penny pitch when it comes to usb flash drives, you will be knocking at our door soon. SOSFakeFlash has had a rash of fake Data Traveler 150 32GB fakes being reported on eBay. Add the recent Transcend, Sony and now Kingston we have only one sad conclusion:

Until eBay visits the Betty Ford clinic to clean up their profit fee addiction and develops a backbone to address the fake and counterfeit flash device issue for brand names and no name in MP Players, Memory Cards and USB Flash drives – STAY AWAY FROM BUYING ANY OF THESE ITEMS ON EBAY! It is not safe.

You need to understand the realistic prices. Once again SOSFakeFlash has some advice if you want to buy these items on eBay;

Use a Credit Card! Fight with PayPal’s silly payment system that tries to discourage you from using a credit card, blocking the options. Struggle through their pages to get to the options to use it.

We know times are hard, but a usb flash drive is an investment. Don’t be come a victim of fake or counterfeit usb flash. Be very careful with brand names, Corsair’s Voyager just joined the brand names being sold counterfeited as fakes on eBay.

Seller well19820906 sells a very attractive 8GB fake flash drive. The seller’s picture doesn’t do this drive justice! In reality it is extremely attractive looking and very slim. However, it is fake capacity. Had the seller sold such a nice looking slim drive at it’s real capacity (2gb) for a similar price there would probably have been quite a few buyers. Pictures from the buyer will be added later.

We have a question – are ebay fraudsters guople and appolly one and the same? Here at fightflashfraud we have been watching these sellers and think these are recent ebay IDs being used by a familiar ring of fraudsters who have been operating on ebay for a long time. As fast as one ID can be shut down, another appears. Feedback indicates that the items pictured are fake capacity, but for these seller ID’s to be shut down hard evidence is needed. This is where you, dear reader, come in. If you bought from these sellers please test your items with h2testw and submit as much other detail as possible to the sosfakeflash blog using the “report a fake” tab. This is the evidence that helps to get seller IDs de-registered.

The Sony Micro Vault brand name for usb flash drives is a target for fraudsters and scammers. Selling false capacity usb flash drives under this brand name, consumers and resellers are being stung! Many who purchase these drives are losing data! eBay sellers are purchasing these dangerous items from internet sites in China and Hong Kong. Some are victims who have not bothered to do their homework in researching the product they are selling. Others know exactly what they are doing and are reaping Hugh profits.

Recently these fakes have been showing up for sale locally on eBay in the UK, Europe and also North America. FlashChipTutor has identified these usb flash drives and has presented them for all to see!

A foolish seller, yungathart33, is selling a third-hand fake 64GB drive and would not listen to reason. He probabably will get next to nothing for the item as ebayers are now more aware of the fakes – so he could potentially land himself in trouble, or even prison, for next to nothing. Sellers – please pay attention if someone warns you an item you are selling is fake!